Man gets parole for grabbing daughter, 12, by throat

A MOTHER has stood by her husband as he was sentenced for grabbing her 12-year-old daughter by the neck and "throwing her across the room".

The Maroochydore District Court was yesterday told of the 45-year-old man's violent criminal history as well as previous drug-related offences.

He pleaded guilty to assault occasioning bodily harm. It heard that on the morning of October 11, 2013, the man had become involved in an argument between his stepdaughter and her mother.

Prosecutor Alex Stark told the court "he picked her up by the throat so she couldn't breathe".

What made the incident more serious was the man had been convicted on a manslaughter charge in the Brisbane Supreme Court in September, 2008, and had been given an eight-year sentence, suspended after two years. In that case, he was shown to have "effectively throttled" his victim.

Judge Gary Long said the man should have been aware of the dangers of grabbing a person by the neck after his previous conviction. The mother told the Daily the man had been protecting her as her daughter had been "causing a fair bit of trouble".

"She was going out, sneaking out at night and coming home at all hours," the mother told us.

"That morning she refused to go to school and she was swearing at me and threatening me."

The girl went to stay with her biological father who took her to the doctor.

The court was shown photographs of the red marks around her neck caused by the incident.

However, she had advised the court she had "moved on" and didn't want to provide a victim's impact statement and had moved in with her biological father.

The man was sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment, with immediate parole. The girl's biological father said the man "does not learn" from his mistakes and "he will be back" before the court.